NEWS RELEASE NOVEMBER 2013
Mercury Removal Market Could Grow From Less than $1 Billion/Yr to Over $10 Billion In The Coming Years
The market for systems and consumables to remove mercury from stack gases could exceed $10 billion by 2020. This is the latest conclusion reached by the McIlvaine Company in Mercury Air Reduction Market.
The biggest near term market is in the U.S.
|
Regulatory Status |
|||
|
Application |
Europe |
Americas |
Asia |
|
Waste-to-energy |
yes |
yes |
yes |
|
Utility Power Air |
No but most plants have scrubbers |
yes |
China on the path |
|
Utility Power Water |
yes |
pending |
pending |
|
Cement |
no |
yes |
no |
|
Industrial Boiler |
no |
yes |
no |
|
Steel |
no |
no |
no |
|
Mining |
no |
no |
no |
Power plants, industrial boilers and cement plants will have to meet new mercury limits by 2016. It is estimated that annual expenditures to meet these rules will exceed $1 billion/yr.
Waste-to-energy plants around the world typically employ equipment to remove mercury. However, the rest of the world lags behind the U.S. relative to limiting stack gas mercury emissions from industrial boilers and cement plants.
When one country takes the lead with more stringent reduction requirements for a particular pollutant, the other countries eventually follow. Also, when one industry is forced to remove a specific quantity of a pollutant, other industries with similar emissions are likely to be subsequently regulated.
It is, therefore, possible to roughly approximate the long-term potential based on the U.S. utility sector as one hundred percent. The conclusion is that the potential is for a market sixteen times the U.S. utility market.
|
Potential Market In % With Americas Utility Power = 100 |
||||
|
Application |
Europe |
Americas |
Asia |
Total |
|
Waste-to-energy |
20 |
5 |
40 |
65 |
|
Utility Power Air |
40 |
100 |
1,000 |
1,140 |
|
Utility Power Water |
5 |
5 |
40 |
50 |
|
Cement |
20 |
10 |
60 |
90 |
|
Industrial Boiler |
20 |
20 |
100 |
140 |
|
Steel and Other |
15 |
10 |
40 |
65 |
|
Mining |
10 |
15 |
20 |
45 |
|
Total |
130 |
165 |
1,300 |
1,595 |
This conclusion is based on the quantities of mercury emitted by industries in various regions. The Asian coal-fired utility sector is much larger than the U.S. sector. China produces five times as much cement as the U.S. U.S. cement plants emit 15 tons of mercury per year, while U.S. utilities emit 50 tons per year. Assuming mercury emissions are the same per ton of cement produced in China, the Chinese cement emissions are 75 tons.
The market will be greatly affected by the technologies chosen for mercury removal. Some are high in capital cost and low in consumables expenditures. Others are the opposite. There are many promising technologies which could reduce the market size.
To keep up with this new technology, McIlvaine has created Mercury Reduction Global Decisions Positioning System which gives polluters a chance to move back and forth among decision trees such as plant retirement, water pollution, solid waste implications and removal of other pollutants (HCl, SO2, and NOx). The ultimate best decision will include decision stops at each tree.
For more information on the market, click on:
N056 Mercury Air Reduction Market
For more information on the free decision system for power plants and other industrial emitters, click on: